“When people ask me what The Refindery is like,” said Mark Beach, past chairman of the CARTM Board, “I’ll just have to tell them to go see it for themselves—words can not describe this colorful endeavor.”

The curious community shows up every wet, rainy, windy day to be the first through the new entrance of The Refindery. They are finding the bargains and treasures they come to CARTM for and stay much longer than they plan.

Ginger Salkowski of Re-evolution Gardens was one of the many people from the community at the grand opening in 2013. She arrived with dozens of her hearty one gallon tomato plant starts and donated them CARTM to sell at the opening.

“I brought my entire farming crew to the opening as a field trip,” said Salkowski. “The CARTM team did an amazing job—such a cool transformation!”

The positive comments about the displays, the lighting fixtures, the creativity and the details—the hundreds of details—could not be taken in with one sweep of the eye.

“We wanted to create a place where people could come and get inspired about creative re-use,” said Jan Hamilton, CARTM’s former executive director. “The comments I am overhearing from customers in the new store are exactly that—again and again. I think we have a hit on our hands.”

Hamilton could not say enough about the team effort of her staff and dozens of community volunteers who came together to build the vision that the design team of Barrentine Design put on paper.

“Building things from scrap and used materials is a whole different process than purchasing new hardware and dimensional lumber,” said Hamilton. “The people from our community who built The Refindery are flexible, creative, team players who saw the vision and made it real.”

“Our new entry sign is yet another example of creative re-use.” said Hamilton.

Along with the one-of-a-kind donor wall in the lobby of the new store, one of the features of The Refindery is a dedicated 240 square foot year-round Trash Art Gallery. About eleven local artists are represented regularly. 50% of the proceeds of work sold in the Trash Art Gallery are donated to CARTM.

CARTM and The Refindery are open Thursday – Monday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (summer hours) and Thursday to Sunday (winter hours). CARTM and The Refindery are located at 34995 Necarney City Road in Manzanita. CARTM offers a unique trio of services: recycling (over 40 items for free), transfer station (trash) and reuse store—The Refindery. CARTM is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supported by donations from the community.

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